General Electric E-50

General Electric E-50

1937

Bands: AM, SW

Tube Lineup: 6A8, 6K7, 6C5, 6F6, 5W4

The GE E-50 was an ebay win and seldom seen possibly because the cabinet was originally painted solid black and orange. That is right, Halloween colors straight from the factory! A very close relative of the model E-50 is the E-52 released the same year with a natural wood stained cabinet with subtle differences in styling. I have also seen other E-50 models with cabinets painted solid black or white with gold trim, or veneer-covered and stained a natural wood color.

Most of the paint had flaked off this example so the cabinet was stripped and stained to a red mahogany color. The chassis was in rather poor condition and heavily rusted. The speaker cone had been eaten away by mice. Interestingly, the chassis retained all the original GE tubes when it came in my possession. The radio was completely recapped, the speaker reconed, the transformer was repainted, and the chassis rust was cleaned up. The first two pictures below show the E50 before restoration and the last picture of the chassis is after restoration.

General Electric E-50

General Electric E-50

General Electric E-50

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